2 International Pornography Spammers Among First to Go to Prison Under CAN-SPAM Act
Both 41 year old men, James R. Schaffer, of Paradise Valley, Arizona, and Jeffrey A. Kilbride, of Venice, California, were ordered to give up $1.1 million in illegally earned money in addition to other fines. AOL Inc is to receive $77,500 in restitution. Over 1.5 million complaints about receiving the raunchy emails were filed with AOL and the FTC. A further $100,000 fine has been handed down by the court.
Kilbride and Schaffer ran a lucrative spamming business by mass emailing millions of internet users with unsolicited messages. These emails contained embedded images of hard-core pornography. Schaffer and Kilbride then earned $1 in commission payments for each new member recruited to the porn website(s) via the emails.
The graphic adult images embedded in the SPAM were immediately visible to anyone opening the email. Internet users from across the country testified about receiving the graphic emails. Some were opened by children. Even those with adult content filters installed on their computers were not spared from viewing the graphic content.
The duo went to great lengths to make the email transmissions' origins harder to trace after an anti-porn spamming act, the CAN-SPAM Act, was passed in 2003. To try to avoid U.S. prosecution, a fake company was created in the Republic of Mauritius, where money was then funneled through bank accounts. The same scam was run using banks on the Isle of Man.
Such a large undertaking required help, which came in the form of Jennifer Clason, 32, and Andrew Ellifson, 31, of Tempe and Scottsdale Arizona respectively; and Kirk Rogers, 43, of Manhattan Beach, California. Kilbride and Schaffer's helpers then helped to send them to prison, testifying against their former partners in court.
Instead of outrunning the new Act, the SPAM spreaders are now among the first to be sentenced under it.
They were convicted by a Federal jury of 8 counts in June 2007. It was found that they violated the Controlling the Assault of Non-solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act of 2003 in sending spam messages using falsified headers and domain names, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and various obscenity charges.
James Schaffer was sentenced to prison for 63 months. Kilbride was also charged with a further count of obstruction of justice for trying to prevent a witness from testifying in the case. He got sentenced to a longer stay in prison for his efforts; 72 months. The three testifying co-conspirators will also serve time in prison.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Attorneys Jill Trumbull-Harris and Bonnie Kane of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) of the Criminal Division, with assistance and support provided by Assistant U.S. Attorney John R. Lopez IV of the District of Arizona. Former CEOS Trial Attorney Kayla Bakshi also participated in the trial of the case. The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and CEOS' High Tech Investigative Unit.
Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, http://www.USDOJ.gov, PR News Wire
Published by neonola
- Email Advertising and the LawWith the crunch on spam mail becoming more widespread, legitimate email marketing campaigns must now adhere to certain restrictions laid out by the FTC. Here, a rundown of the main rules.
Is the Obama Administration and the Department of Justice Protecting the...Again, Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice, are involved in a scandal. This is nothing new for the Attorney General. He is use to scandal. Ask Marc Rich.- Department of Justice Sues South Carolina's Spartanburg County Over Sex Discrimina...The Department of Justice is suing Spartanburg County, S.C. for allowing the sexual harassment of a county employee.
- Brief Info about the United States Department of JusticeThe Department of Justice is one of the most important government agencies in the US Government today. It handles many of the legal issues faced by the government, and oversees the federal legal system.
Department of Justice Wants Congress To Update to Identity Theft Laws In order to help combat identity theft, the Department of Justice has proposed legislation to the Congress
- The CAN SPAM Act of 2003
- Number of Spam Emails on the Rise
- Two Men Convicted of Sending Millions of Pornographic Spam Messages
- Two Men Sentenced for Running International Pornography Business by Using Spam
- Don't Depend on Laws to Protect You from Spam
- What You Must Know About Spam Email
- Robert Alan Soloway Arrested for Spamming
- Over $1.25 million in fines, forfeited funds, and restitution is to be payed.
- Over 1.5 million complaints were filed about these pornographic emails.
3 Comments
Post a CommentOh, and serial forwarders should be stopped! This is one of my biggest computer peeves. I refuse to read them, but unfortunately, it doesn't stop my address from going to all 5 million people on the fwd list. These embedded images are also being reported in some blog and profile comment graphics.
I hope they'll be restricted or at least monitered if they aren't banned from the computer room altogether. Although I'd take malicious pleasure in watching them empty a ton of spam from their inboxes...
Hope the jails do not allow them Internet and computer use while they serve their time. Sadly, like the death penalty, I doubt that this will put a stop to spammers and this type of fraud. I still have not quite figured out how they can use, example, your email address to spam me with smut. One way these crooks harvest is by embedding code in innocent images, such as an Angel and starting a chain letter on it's way. Because the message is so sweet, people willing and unknowing are "aiding and abetting" by forwarding them to "everyone on my list" (of contacts).